Once you have gone through this exercise with them, you’ll want to work with them on what to do once they are on the ground. Show them how to roll onto their hands so that they are able to crawl to a telephone to call for help. This can be accomplished by having them use a solid piece of furniture to raise themselves up for support. Not only will this help your elder in understanding how to get to the phone, but it will help them understand how to help themselves as opposed to panicking when they fall.

Regardless if they think they are fine after a fall, they should call for help – either by calling a caregiver, neighbor or 911. Anytime an elderly person falls, they absolutely need to be checked out by a doctor. Falls can sometimes be due to illnesses that have gone undetected, stroke, medication issues or potential infections.

If your elder falls when you are present, you will want to check for any severe pain they may be in, along with any difficulty they may have while trying to move. If they are in significant pain, or can’t move, keep them calm and call 911 for additional assistance. If they don’t appear to be in significant pain and are able to move, offer them support by bending your legs and keeping your own body straight. Another option would be to bring a small table or strong chair to them so they can lift themselves up on it with your help. Don’t risk injury to yourself or further injury to your elder – if you don’t think you will be able to help your elder without injuring yourself or causing further injury to your elder.

Babies are able to learn to read effortlessly and easily from birth through 3 years old using the whole word method. Not only are they able to learn to read, they learn to read intuitively as opposed to those of us who learn to read much later by learning the rules of the language.

This means that babies absorb language in the written form and the brain figures out the rules on its own. The incredible thing about teaching babies to read using the whole word method is that they learn the rules on their own and are able to use them to read words they have never seen.

When you teach a baby to read, you don’t need to spend a lot of time teaching, they learn at lightening speed and they are able to read fluently almost overnight. They are able to read well and they generally are able to read more quickly and with a higher level of comprehension than children taught at an older age.

Babies that are taught to read develop a love of reading that lasts a lifetime. When they are being inquisitive and want to know that answers to many things, we can point out the books that will give them those answers. We teach them from a young age to find information from books, giving them the ability to learn for a lifetime.

1. Write down your strengths and weaknesses. The key here is to BE HONEST. What do you honestly love about teaching? Many teachers quickly forget their passions and what they love to do BEFORE they lock themselves in a specific teaching approach. Then, they are miserable because they don’t enjoy the teaching approach as they manage a class. But more often, they become easily stressed by the classroom management piece and which also takes away the FUN of teaching.

2. Match your teaching approach to the ages of the students you teach. This will make a significant impact on the children you’ll teach. Remember, the lower the grade level, the more interaction you will need to provide. So choose wisely! If you aren’t sure, read other teacher blogs, websites and articles to get a feel of teaching for this particular age group in terms of combining classroom management with effective instruction.

If you can’t find any experienced teachers to follow online – then look for workshops or in-service courses in your school district(s) who can show you sample approaches of the age groups you are interested in teaching. For example, don’t simply gather information if you want to become a successful and confident teacher. Find out what it takes to also teach successfully.

3. Keep an open mind. Finding your own teaching approach is largely a process of experimentation as you adjust and readjust your instruction. But most importantly, you need to adjust your instruction to suit the needs and abilities of your students. For example, if your students are digital learners, find ways to incorporate technology in the classroom even if it is on a smaller scale.

4. Add additional ways of engaging your students that suit your personality and style. This will help you cater to different learning styles and appeal to different levels of instruction. (differentiated instruction)

5. Consistently, evaluate the effectiveness of your teaching approach. If you are not successfully engaging students, chances are, you need to be more flexible in terms of suiting the needs of your students and be more intuitive to your own teaching style as well. Some new teachers, become particularly frustrated and burnt out by many unsuccessful lessons and many more, decide to leave teaching altogether. Way before this starts to happen, a teacher trainer can provide guidance and direction as to how new teachers can maximize their (limited) resources to benefit their teaching and students. Consider this option before you experience any signs/symptoms of early burn-out.

6. Don’t give up! A few unsuccessful teaching experiences are NOT reasons for failure. If anything, they are only setbacks which occur to ALL teachers. What’s more important, is to recognize those setbacks learn and grow from these experiences. Constantly think BIGGER all the time as you learn how to adjust and readjust your instruction to suit the needs of your students. Experiment with new activities and ideas. Keep your teaching fun and education for you and your students!